Keara Sax
Arts Scholar
Semester 1
I think the wide array of assignments and content in class forced me to expand my horizons a lot, which I feel like differed from other classes. The course, while not the same as it would have been in-person, carries a lot of value online and gave me unique opportunities such as guest speakers and museum touring opportunities that I would not have otherwise been able to experience, this due to the nature of the online course as well as the condition of the country (and world). I think the value of exploration and collaboration with many different people with many different skill sets and backgrounds has power to it as well, which I would not receive in otherwise independent and asynchronous courses I am taking.
This semester, I had the opportunity to take ENGL290, otherwise known as Digital Studies. We discussed a lot of elements that relate to Arts Scholars, one relation in particular being creative writing. For our third project, we were given the opportunity to test out our creative writing skills by writing and coding our own original ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ video game. I based mine off of the fantastical franchise Harry Potter, and had a ball exploring different aspects of the magical world and writing my own story to parallel the fourth novel of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I think the exploratory story-telling elements played into my creative side that I use in Arts Scholars, and I was able to produce a compelling game that appeals to Potterheads as well as individuals unfamiliar with the story.
In class, I think we spent a lot of time personally participating in traditional visual art, which is to be expected of the online setting. I was not expecting us to lean on spoken word as much, but I have found time spent with TAs at the beginning and end of the colloquium classes and spoken word more compelling than I would have expected.
I feel that we can all agree college is nothing like we expected. No coming-of-age movie could have ever predicted something like this, or make a movie compelling enough to release about it. I suppose I should not have enjoyed the Education Connection jingle as much as I did as a kid, because my wish for online school became true. Staying at home is comforting, but I still have the feeling that I am in high school. Making connections with others, professors and students alike, is extremely difficult in the online setting.I have decided to stay home next semester as well, but have become determined to reach out to others more often and focus on making connections. Hopefully by sophomore year I will be able to move onto campus and quarantine will begin to lift, but my earlier perceived idea of what college will look like is already dead- I just hope I can come up with another perception that is viable and rewarding in the given situation.
I think Maryland is taking decent precautions relating to the virus, but there is always room for improvement. My main hope is that they can make calls on what they will be doing earlier, and continue to provide mental health support as they have been advocating for in these unprecedented times.
I personally took a lot away from Gabrielle’s field trip to Swarthmore. I think the use of such interesting and humble materials by many of the artists in the showcase motivated me to be more creative in my own work, and to step outside the box as well as my comfort zone these past few months. Particularly, the artist who had a showcase of needle felting pieces intrigued me a lot, not only with their use of a fun color palette and unique, organic shapes in their pieces, but the technique itself became very compelling. I have been wanting to attempt needle felting since, honestly. I also just found TA time to be singularly intriguing, as my group came from all different art backgrounds and majors. I feel like I got to make connections with them and learn from what they each bring to the table, as well as just make fun conversation I don’t otherwise get to make in the online setting.
Semester 2
I personally struggled a lot with making connections with faculty, especially with the online setting. One teacher I am proud to have connected with was my ENSP101 teacher. I made an effort to reach out to her by email when I was curious about something or had a question I hoped she could answer and elaborate on. I also tried to participate in class and stay after class to discuss contents of the course or applications of the class to my personal life, and asked for her opinions on such. With the online environment, connections are not formed as strong and I hope to connect with some of my previous semesters in person on campus next year. I recommend that incoming students try to participate in discussion in class and stay after class or show up to office hours to directly talk to their teachers, whether to ask questions or just have a conversation.
Throwing myself into the arts scholars library project and the podcast project at the beginning of the year encouraged me to become acquainted with other art scholars in a group environment. Meeting people with similar interests in a setting in which we are working together allowed me to connect with and relate to others in terms of adjusting to school. Despite it being difficult to connect on a deeper level with the boundary of distance and technology, acquainting with other students through the program let me feel less alone in such an isolating situation. Without the boundary of online school, it would be in the best interest for students to connect in order to feel a greater sense of belonging and unity. Meeting new people can extend from feeling less lonely to feeling inspired or safe.
I found myself being inherently inspired by the works of other arts scholars, whether in or outside class. The breadth of talents brought to the table by each Art Scholars student is more than enough to spark creativity. From reigniting my love of musical theater from the passion of students discussing excellent Broadway scores in class to group mates simply being encouraging for me to push through the final steps of a long-term fashion project, my fellow peers have never ceased to stimulate and motivate me. One project I was honored to participate in was designing the logo for Arts Fest. My involvement made me interested in continuing to pursue my love of graphic design, and applying it to the Arts Scholars program.
The workshop I participated in, The You In Music, made me more aware of the impact music has on me, and how I can utilize it to my advantage. After looking at the different workshops on the ArtsFest website, I know future Arts Scholars students will be able to hone and expand on their existing skills in a way that allows them to further understand and appreciate a craft within the arts realm, whether it is theirs or not.
I found the workshops to be the most helpful in developing my work. It gave me the space and guidance to analyze my relationship with music objectively and gave me the tools to relate to it in new and advanced ways. It helped me utilize music for the betterment of my mental health and helped me out of an art block I was having with the music I create with my band outside of school. For Arts Scholars students, I would be careful choosing a workshop and make sure it is something you would not only be interested in but would love to apply to your life outside the program. Having a lasting interest in the workshop’s contents is important, as you’ll be in it for a whole semester.
Semester 3
Art is simply a communication pathway to evoke a message. The intention is to convey this message in a way that grabs the attention of its target audience to create the effect the artist strives for. This message can be related to learned history, biases, and beliefs. For example, after viewing La Manplesa, I have gained a greater understanding for the struggles of the community of Salvadorans and other Latinx living in Washington D.C. in the 90s and even now, and its relations to the BLM protests that have been occurring over the past year or so.
To jumpstart the creative process, an artist must be presented with a problem or story worth solving or communicating. Then they must take the time to mull over how they want to approach it. After this, the artist will finally reach a point where they know their approach, then begin to decide if it is worth pursuing- this is when we receive feedback from fellow artists on their opinion or if they have any suggestions for the idea’s development. Finally, an artist must implement their idea and execute it thoroughly.
I think it is important to receive constructive criticism on our work, in order to make sure we are able to communicate our messages efficiently to our target audiences. Sometimes when we are overexposed to our own works we become limited in our perception of it, and it is good to get a set of fresh eyes on it to catch issues or areas for improvement. However, consent in terms of what feedback is provided is also important. Finding points in our work where others’ opinions can efficiently be incorporated and seeking that informed feedback is important to developing a project to its utmost potential. For example, we practiced giving proper and helpful feedback in colloquium with each others’ proposals at its progressing stages.
Taylor Swift has been taking the world by storm- upon the release of Taylor’s Version of her album Red, she has finally released the 10 minute version of her song, All Too Well, along with an accompanied short film. The pairing of the full extended version along with its short film has now communicated the full story to fans of Swift’s short-lived relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal. Between the lyricism, composition, and the plentiful Easter eggs in just about every nook and cranny of the film, there is not much left unspoken. This belief for me is also due to Arts Scholars encouraging scholars to look past what is initially presented to us. There is always more than what meets the eye; for example, Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien, the lead actors in the film, have a large age gap between one another- this is representative of Swift and Gyllenhaal when they were together. Several nods were also made to Swift’s albums 1989 and Red, even lead actress Sadie Sink’s hair color. Without Arts Scholars’ guidance in viewing art, I possibly would have missed these key details that complete the picture in Swift’s lived experience.
I am currently enrolled in IMDM127, which is a creative coding class. We discuss visual art a lot within Arts Scholars, as it is an easily accessible and universally understood medium. However, the coding knowledge required for the course is an art in itself that I am beginning to explore in order to expand my artistic skill set. I have explored coding in the past as a bridge towards the art of storytelling through gaming, but IMDM127 explores the rendering of visually pleasing two-dimensional and three-dimensional art, both static and in motion. This can be art with intended shape or computationally random. This exploration of the medium and its capabilities within the visual art realm is much of what Arts Scholars encourages- experimentation and expansion of abilities.
I think interacting with fellow Arts Scholars I was exposed to many different methods of not only creating art but also tying it to personal interests, as seen in many of the capstone project ideas I was exposed to. I wish we were given more of an opportunity to discuss our projects outside our revisions of proposals within our TA groups, as I would have liked to hear more about others’ personal projects.
As a Peer Mentor, I was able to contribute back to the Arts Scholars community by serving as a guide to six wonderful Arts freshmen. Through the mentor program, I was able to form a bond with my mentees and support them in their endeavors within the Arts community as well as generally whilst tackling their first semester of college. While this has been a bit difficult with COVID restrictions and the busy schedules my mentees have, it has been an honor to watch these kids grow more into themselves, get involved with the arts on campus, and bond with one another. I am also involved with AAB, although I unfortunately missed the first event, which was open mic night. I try to stay involved with the Board, but have found it difficult with my schedule. I do, however, promote the events to my mentees and attend when I can.
Arts Scholars has blessed me with six creative minded mentees that I have learned quite a bit from. The structure of the class with TA groups also allows for a closer, more intimate experience within the classroom despite the large class size. The breadth of artistic talent within the program and the ample opportunities for group feedback and experimentation with mediums allows me to expand the horizons of my artistic abilities in a safe and welcoming environment. For example, for our abstract presentation videos for our capstone projects, we were split into small groups and viewed everyone’s presentations and wrote out guided feedback for each person in the group. My peers’ feedback outside my TA group helped me expand my thinking on my capstone project idea and further abridge my proposal and goals with the project.
Semester 4
I think the program taught me a lot about my artistic toolkit and the breadth of my artistic abilities and how I can use them to serve different purposes. For example, I learned the value of spoken word my very first semester by participating in a podcast about plagiarism in the music industry, which tied in my interest in music. My second semester I experimented with collage for my workshop, another foreign art medium to me, which was rooted in my research of pop culture of the 1970s. I then took my newly acquired knowledge of coding to create a video game across semesters 3 and 4 for my capstone, rooted in the benefits gaming has on mental health.
I personally found this year that I have a love for digital art, not necessarily in photography and graphic design but also through coding. I always had this perception that coding is more of a STEM thing, and that it was not really meant for me as I am more of a creative person. But this year, I found myself challenging this perception. I taught myself JavaScript, took an IMDM course, and ended up coding a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game as my final capstone. This was reinforced by my field trip to Artechouse DC, which at the time was showcasing ‘Transient: Impermanent Paintings”. The coding that went behind the randomly generated music pieces accompanied by randomly generated pixels to create digital art projected on screens and around the studio space was enrapturing and, in my opinion, a harmonious blend between STEM and art values through unpredictability.
I drew a lot of what went into my capstone project from taking two supporting courses: ENGL290 and IMDM127. I was first introduced to the concept of choose-your-own-adventure novels and video games from my professor in ENGL290. The class, Introduction to Digital Studies, analyze and explores the realm of digital technologies and media through text and hands-on experimenting. This is where I was also introduced to Twine and JavaScript, the game creator and coding language used to create my capstone. This class gave me a foundation to expand my coding knowledge upon to develop my project. IMDM127, Creative Coding for Digital Media, was the class that solidified my interest in creative coding and how I can utilize it as an art form. This class, while not teaching me the same coding language, gave me the tools to pursue my own research and development of my JavaScript skills.
While my capstone project is the biggest example of a newly developed ability and interest, I have had the opportunity to experiment and interact with many different artistic disciplines that have sparked my interest. For example, after completing the podcast project first semester freshman year, I have had a much higher value for art through spoken word. Not only can it be artistic through structure or message, but it can be a vessel for informative art. I have experimented within a lot with different disciplines as well, such as using design in the Creating Characters workshop to create my own unique character, to the graphic design I do in my free time and pursue in my major, to even web design for this ePortfolio website!
I think the best example of this would be my experience with The You In Music workshop freshman year. For our final project, we were permitted to do just about anything so long as it pertained to the effect music has on ourselves or society. We all went in different directions with our ideas, but all came together to create a singular presentation for the workshop’s digital gallery and serve the same purpose. Or even the progression of our capstones. In CPSA250, we gave feedback to one another on our capstone projects just about every week, and despite practicing different disciplines, we were able to collaborate and provide constructive feedback on each others’ projects and progress.
I genuinely believe that I’ve learned a lot about myself, my interests, and my artistic talents through this program. I gave myself a lot of room to experiment and learn about mediums I would otherwise be unable to practice within my coursework- and for that, I’m grateful. It has also, however, assured me that the path I am taking with my major in Marketing and enrollment in Strategic Design Fellows is right for me. It is a happy medium combination between my artistic interests and the practicality and structure I crave from employment. Additionally, I think I’ve learned a lot about how I operate in terms of completing long-term projects, and have obtained skills that will help me be efficient and effective in the future, both within my studies and professional life.